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Show II Dorothy Dix Talks THE CHAPERONE QUESTION I Life, H?rcSTSLLJji if ig'.'Lt'1-".-.gpiLXftf i I (Copyright lOi'O, Uy The Wheeler Syndicate, Syn-dicate, I ne.) A womman who Is the mother of daughters, asks mo how 1 stand on tho chapcrono question. Frankly, I don't stand at all. I am fitting astride of th fence, and I don't know on which side to alicht. It looks no un-Amcrlean and so much like the yiavo of tho harem bus.noae on one Hide, and so danKerous nnd full of huh res on tho other side. Jo one will deny that every young girl not only needs some older woman to look after her. nnd protect her. but hc also needs for it to be generally knmrn that she has a guardian who Is Keeping tab on her. and all with whom she associate. So far the chapcrono In all to the good. Jt should not he forgotten, however.; that a watch dog can keep friends as avoII as enemies off of the promlsos, and. that while a chapcrohe may possibly pos-sibly Ifoep undesirable men away from a girl, she can most certainly cut them, off from eligible ones. I Here's a case In point that hna Just come under my own observation. I have been at a summer hotel where there were innny mothers and daughters. daugh-ters. One mother was the conscientious conscien-tious chaperone who Is always on tho Job. Her Knglc J2yo Uusy Sho never took her eagle eye off her daughter day or night. Wherever the girl went .Mother tagged her. If daughter played golf, mother rat whore she could command a view of the entlro links. If daughter was asked to go automoblling. Mother assumed as-sumed that she was also Invited and crowded In. If daughter was laughing laugh-ing and talking with a crowd of boys and girls mother Joined the group. If daughter was having a tele a tete with a young man mothor turned the duct Into a trio. The girl was Junt tho common, or gardon variety of girl pretty enough, bright enough, sweet and sensible, and j attractive enough to have Joined In j with tho balance of the young people ! and had a good time, and perhaps 1 have one of the nice young men fall ' t In love with her, If sho had been loft to herself, nnd to go It alone a : little. I'ut sho had no stupendous fascination, fascina-tion, no ravishing beauty to enable her to carry the hundlcap of mother, and i uon run In the popularity race, to say I nothing of winning out. Xo one want- cd to be burdened with the society of " mother, and so, na it was Impossible to have the girl without mother the girl was simply loft out. i Old Lady Tugs Along i I overheard soinn young chap plan ning a ' little party they wore giving. The question of nsklng the girl was discussed. "I wish we could," said one jouth, "hut if you do the old lady will come along and I'm not going to be tho goat who has her wished on him." ' Nor I." "Nor 1," chorused the others. So tho girl was left sitting with mother on the hotel veranda, when the laughing, merry throng drovo off. a Mctlm of too much chnperone. Furthermore, mother will ohaperone her Into the Old Maids' home for she proudly boasted that she never permitted per-mitted her daughter to go to the theatre thea-tre without her and that she had never received a gentleman caller alone. Where expense reed not be considered consid-ered It may be well for the chaperone , - to accompany a young couple everywhere every-where they go, but the. nverage youth In business does well if he has the piico of two thoatre or opera tickets, or can buy a lunch for two. It puts him entirely out of the running if ho has to drag the girl's famllv along with her. So the girl with a chapcrono chapcr-ono is perfectly safe from being In- ltod to see Improper plays. Or pro-pcr pro-pcr ones, cither for that matter, Nor Is thcro any danger of the girl whoso mother always helps her eiv tcrtaln hor beaux over being pestered l much with masculine society. When I American boys go to teo a girl they want to ace hor, and not her mother, - and they want to seu her out of ear nhot of her family. Foreign men appear to be ablo to make love before a third party, but It Is an accomllsh-mcnt accomllsh-mcnt our men have not yet acquired. Young people In this country objict to tho cliapcronc being always on duty, not because they want to do anything, or say anything that Is In the slightest degree objectionable, but because an older person makes them self conscious. The little silly Jokes it which they laugh, the Juvenile K.dinaeo in which they indulge, the tensing they find so amusing falls HflU stillborn, and dead before the cynical 1' eyes of ago. They can't do It and t w not feel like asses. Hj Girls Foolish Creatures H' Shall, then, the young girl be given j her head, and go her own sweet will as she lists? Heaven forbid: Girls aaaa ' I arc foolish creatures, and they need 'all the protection and guidance their mothers can give them, but this Is all the more effective if It io tempered temper-ed with common sense and discretion. A mother, for Instance, certainly falls In her duty If sho does not know where her daughter Is every minute of the time, and Is not personally acquainted ac-quainted with overy young man with I whom sho associates. But if the girl I is going to a suitable place it surely isn't necessary for mother to do the shadow act after her. N'or is It obligatory ob-ligatory on her to thrust her society Serpetually on a young man whom she as Investigated and found out to be moral and upright and with a good record. "lie sure you arc right and then-go ahead," Davy Crockett gave as a motto, "Be sure they are all right thon let them alone," would bo a good sloffan for chaperoncsv Personally I have always felt that most of a mother'ts r-haperoning should bo -done long years before It is needed. It should begin In the cradlo and continue by little beds, and at mother's knee when baby lisp prayers to God I to make them good little girls. If a j mother does her part then, If she in- stills into tho little girl's heart a lovoi for purity, and the white things of life, ! if the mother Ingrains in the very fibre of her being a rock-bottomed vlrtuo that no passion can shake; if tho mothor teaches the little girl strength and courage and to hold her honor above her life, then she won't need any watching when she's grown. And If mother has intelligence enough to realize that Ignorance never will be Innoconce, and she erects danger signals before the various pitfalls pit-falls Into which the unwarned stum-ible, stum-ible, then. Indeed, mother may cut out the dragon, act. Her work has been done in time Instead of too late. For when all Is said a girl's real chaperone must be in her own heart and brains. No woman was ever successfully suc-cessfully watched. If she had it In her to Jump over the bara, sooner or later she did it. Nor can anyone really protect another. They must do that fori themselves. There comes an hourj when the watch dog slumbers; a place where the most anxious mother can not follow her daughter and woe be' then that girl who has not been taught to take care of herself and who docs not know how to iruard he rKilf n en Inst . danger. In considering the chaperone question ques-tion we may. also""glvo due recognition recogni-tion to American institution and American Ideal both feminine and masculine. Our girls are brought up differently from other girls. They arc not harem born, nor convent bred, nor provln-clally provln-clally educated. They are in the thick of life from Infancy. While their hair .Is still In pigtails they are aB worldly wise as forolgn girls are when they marry. Indepedence and self-rcll-anco arc their heritage and they actually ac-tually do not need as much chaperoning chaperon-ing because they are go Jolly well fit to look out for themselves. Also, there are not many American men, thank God. from whom a nice, sweet, pure American girl needs protection. pro-tection. But about chaperoning. Well its always a safe rule to do in Rome a the Romans do. If you live In a community com-munity where a girl is suspicioned of being not just "nice" if she Isn't watched. trot around after your daughter like Mary's little lamb or was It the sheep dog? Otherwise, quite other wise. But whatever you do for your grown daughter, don't forget to teach your baby daughter how every girl can be her own chapcrono. I |